Simeon Amburgey

Nick, the “is This You” was actually a YouTube app prompt. it send a prompt notification to verify a login attempt, you select Yes or No to confirm. I was selecting NO but the deed was already done and they wasted no time. I was able to see a complete timeline of each step looking at my Google account activity log.

I need to do more testing but it seems to be straightforward. I will follow up soon.

I pulled this down earlier this evening and iIt is really something special. John continues to surprise me with how creative he can be with taking Unify into some wonderful places. The MIDIBOX implementation on this is great because you can use the patterns and motifs with any instrument plugin. Lots to explore and it also has utility in being able to layer the patches with other sound sources. Joyfully harpin’ away 🤓

Yeah, I had been using the Authenticator App when logging in but since they had the SESSION COOKIES (very important), that was how they got around it as it looked like they were using an authenticated device. There is no more helpless feeling than getting a pop up on your phone while you ARE DRIVING asking "Is This You" and the location is the Netherlands, you click NO - NO - NO and try to pull over to change your password but it is already too late. They must use some sort of automation as it happened fairly quickly and mind you my computer was turned off. The Trojan was able to scrape the information it needed to take my Gmail account over and that was extra scary as they had access to my emails on that account. Needless to say, I am working on migrating to a new email address and phasing the compromised one out. it was and still is a very sobering experience and has ramped up my thought process on how to move forward more securely. Thanks again to everyone for their support. Joyfully, Simeon

Hello friends, Friday I had the opportunity to get back on the horse and ride back into town with both guns blazing! It is so encouraging to have so many friends and viewers supporting and coming along with me in this life adventure, I am so grateful for that. if you missed the live, here is the full replay. I unpack some of the aspects of the phishing attack, sharing my experience. I also take a look at a few instruments along the way. Staying Joyful! I'M BACK!!! Unpacking The Past Week

That is the 64 million dollar question. The only thing I can think of is disruption and possible attempt at identity theft. The motivation is selfish and evil in my opinion. I am thankful that they did not delete the videos, that would have been devastating and of course take a this in a totally different direction. Having this happen has added a layer of uncertainty to everything I have done using the Gmail account that the channel was associated with as they could have potentially used it to search for sensitive information that lies dormant in most of our Gmail accounts. They did not get into or access my AdSense account to try and redirect any payments, I think YouTube locked that out when the channel was suspended. I am working on moving the channel to another Gmail address as a precaution. Joyfully, Simeon

Yes, Before the hack, UVI sent Quadra Travellers to me. I hope to get it going soon. Joyfully, Simeon

Short Update So while all of the videos are there (thank The Lord), the hackers set them all to PRIVATE. I now have to go through ALL of the videos on the channel and edit the visibility so that they can be PUBLIC once more. This might result in seeing new notifications of previously published videos and other unexpected things but the upside is that things are being restored. As @PavlovsCat mentioned, this community is the best! I have been a cakewalk user since the late 90's and this forum has always been home for me. Surrounded by so many amazing and talented musicians, I am so fortunate and honored to be here as a part of the Cakewalk community. I will continue to keep you posted! Joyfully, Simeon

Zo, For the most part as far as I can tell, all of my previous videos are still there. I did lose my channel playlists, community posts, and some channel customizations but that is easy to work through restoring. I was very encouraged by YouTube's response. I realize that this happened over a weekend period but they were quick to get things sorted today, which is appreciated. I made sure to share as much as I could regarding information, I thought woul dbe helpful for them and I am making sure that I have locked everything down appropriately and HAVE A SYSTEM BACKUP in place! We are on our way once. again! I am hoping to be LIVE on Friday to unpack some of this, I look forward to seeing all of you soon. Joyfully, Simeon

YESSS!!!! I have some work to do before everything is back up to full speed but this is a huge step in that direction. Thanks everyone for the amazing support. I look forward to being back to share more about this particular incident but more importantly to get back making joyful sounds to take us on new Joyful Journeys! Joyfully yours, Simeon

They were being impersonated by the hacker in a fake collaboration scheme, I spoke to Jay Lichty by phone and he verified that his company was targeted before. The weight of responsibility falls entirely on myself for overriding my gut. I have a lot to share on this once things are up again. In short, the hackers have to hack you first before they can hack your system. Jay and his wife at Lichty guitars are doing some amazing things for musicians and their community. It is very sad to see them exploited and misrepresented like this, The story continues and I am praying for a happy ending soon. Seeing this is over a weekend I do not expect much movement until Monday. Until then, stay joyful 😀 Simeon

Hello everyone, I am sorry for not chiming in sooner, it has been a bit of a mess to say the least. In short, I fell prey to a classic collaboration phishing attack, the most convincing I had ever seen. The hackers were posing as Lichty Guitars and wanted me to select one of their custom made instruments to inbox and share my experiences in a video. The communication looked legit and did not give me a reason to doubt the authenticity, but their trap was about to be sprung. Thursday about 12:00 pm EST, I opened an application from them (the impersonator) that was able to steal what I believe were my SESSION COOKIES, giving them a way to bypass the usual Two Factor Authentication I had set up. Things happened very quickly from there. After closing my computer we went out and on our way I get a Two Factor Prompt that someone was trying to log in from the Netherlands. I clicked NO This Is Not Me, but the damage was done. I tried pulling over to try and change my password but they had already gained access and locked me out. The next thing was my wife gets a notification that “I” just started a livestream, but it was “TESLA” and something to do with cryptocurrency. Needless to say I turned the car around and headed back home to see if there was anything I could do. I immediately started to try and change passwords for other sensitive accounts using the Gmail account associated with my channel. I also made contact by phone with the real Lichty Guitars (which I should have done in the first place) and verified that this was indeed a scam and that they have been targeted before. I also Tweeted my situation tagging YouTube Creators as that was really the only option to get any type of support. Email, chat, of course phone options were non existent. After a little while, I received a direct message on Twitter giving me a way to submit an account recovery form. I filled out the information and then all I could do was wait. Time passes (it is later Thursday), and I get an email saying my account has been recovered. So I immediately go and change passwords and work on doing malware scans to eliminate any possible threat that might still be on my system. I then see that I could now login to my channel to start cleaning up the mess. When this type of hack occurs, usually nothing on the channel is deleted, they will set all of the videos to PRIVATE and change other meta data, channel icon, and channel name. I did a bulk edit to mark my videos to public again and tried to get my channel name and icon set back to normal. Things were looking fine UNTIL I get an email from YouTube saying that now my channel had been TERMINATED! This was something I never expected but now it seems that this was possibly in response to viewers seeing something was wrong on the channel earlier and reporting it to YouTube as a precaution. So back to Twitter as well as following up with replies to earlier emails from YouTube partner support. Now I wait…….. I did get a response from YouTube late last night assuring me that they are working on getting things resolved, so I am hopeful that will be soon. In the mean time, I ordered a YUBIkey which is a hardware two factor device that ironically was what the hackers were using to prevent me from logging in or regaining access to my account. I am also working through making sure I changed passwords on other platforms that might be vulnerable. So, many lessons learned and wake up call received. The biggest one is not fully trusting that little voice saying, why would a guitar company want you to do a video, you don’t even play guitar 😂😂😂😂 I laugh a little now but with a deep regret that this happened in the first place, costing me a lot of lost time trying to fix a mess that could have easily been avoided. I have to say that I have received so much support from the community and that has been such a comfort and encouragement. Also, by sharing what happened to me maybe someone will be spared the headache that I am dealing with now. I will keep everyone posted as the events continue to unfold. You can follow me on Twitter @praisetracks if you are on that platform but I will be here as well. Staying joyful, Simeon

I guess I am lucky 13! 😂 Congratulations on launching this new endeavor, hopefully the momentum can pick up as you have a lot to offer.

Very interesting 🧐 We we’re able to pick up a Samsung 50” 4K UHD television for Christmas and it is amazing. We had been using a 42” Samsung 3D TV for years. It is still 1080p but since it is a 3D television, it has a 120hz refresh rate. It is one of the Samsung models that required the 3D LCD shutter glasses to work. I moved it into the studio to see how it would work. It is Huge compared to the smaller monitor I had there before. I need to get it back more on the wall to make sure I can handle it being so close and so HUGE 😂I still have the mounting arm attached to the wal so once I remove that I can get a better idea. Did I mention, this is a HUGE difference, but cool that you can really see what’s going on. Joyfully! Simeon

Yep, another one of those must have plugins, I use it all of the time to help with vocals sitting better in a mix.